FAMI launches Save and Learn fund

MANILA, Philippines - Investment company First Metro Asset Management Inc. (FAMI) has launched its Monthly Investment Program (MIP) for employees of member schools of the Catholic Education Association of the Philippines (CEAP).

FAMI is a subsidiary of First Metro Investment Corp. (FMIC), the investment house of the Metrobank Group.

Under the MIP, FAMI will provide the investment mechanism where an employee from any of the 1,260 CEAP member-schools nationwide makes voluntary monthly savings through salary deduction.

These savings are invested in a FAMI-managed mutual fund of the employees’ choice. FAMI is the administrator, investment manager, and distributor of four mutual funds - equity, fixed income, balanced, and money market - under the brand Save and Learn.

“Everyone needs to save for some future requirement, whether for their wedding, their children’s education, or for their retirement. Yet people find it difficult to do. The monthly investment program provides the answer to this need by providing a saving and investment scheme to make these dreams a reality,” FAMI executive vice president Hector de Leon said.

The MIP was first introduced by FAMI last year among the Metrobank Group employees. “We are now on to our next phase of tapping the employees of our partner CEAP,” De Leon added.

Established in 2005, FAMI is 70 percent-owned by FMIC, 15 percent by CEAP, and 15 percent by the Marist Development Foundation. Its Save and Learn Equity Fund registered a net yield of 53 percent at the close of 2009 and was named the best performing equity fund by the Investment Company Association of the Philippines under the three-year category.